f paper-shelled pecans, which was
soon due to bear; the ranch house and its clump of palms was all but
hidden by a forest of strange trees, which were reported to ripen
everything from moth-balls to bicycle tires. Blaze Jones was perhaps
responsible for this report, for Alaire had shown him several thousand
eucalyptus saplings and some ornamental rubber-plants.

"That Miz Austin is a money-makin' piece of furniture," he once told
his daughter Paloma. "I'm no mechanical adder--I count mostly on my
fingers--but her and me calculated the profits on them
eucher--what's-their-name trees?--and it gave me a splittin' headache.
She'll be a drug queen, sure."

"Why don't you follow her example?" asked Paloma. "We have plenty of
land."

Blaze, in truth, was embarrassed by the size of his holdings, but he
shook his head. "No, I'm too old to go rampagin' after new gods. I
'ain't got the imagination to raise anything more complicated than a
mortgage; but if I was younger, I'd organize myself up and do away with
that Ed Austin. I'd sure help him to an untimely end, and then I'd
marry them pecan-groves, and blooded herds, and drug-store orchards.
She certainly is a heart-breakin' device, with her red hair and red
lips and--"

"FATHER!" Paloma was deeply shocked.

Complete isolation, of course, Alaire had found to be impossible, even
though her ranch lay far from the traveled roads and her Mexican guards
were not encouraging to visitors. Business inevitably brought her into
contact with a considerable number of people, and of these the one she
saw most frequently was Judge Ellsworth of Brownsville, her attorney.

It was perhaps a week after Ed had left for San Antonio that Alaire
felt the need of Ellsworth's counsel, and sent for him. He responded
promptly, as always. Ellsworth was a kindly man of fifty-five, with a
forceful chin and a drooping, heavy-lidded eye that could either blaze
or twinkle. He was fond of Alaire, and his sympathy, like his
understanding, was of that wordless yet comprehensive kind which is
most satisfying. Judge Ellsworth knew more than any four men in that
part of Texas; information had a way of seeking him out, and his head
was stored to repletion with facts of every variety. He was a good
lawyer, too, and yet his knowledge of the law comprised but a small
part of that mental wealth upon which he prided himself. He knew human
nature, and that he considered far more important than law. His mind
was like